KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 — PAS called today for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to disclose the minutes of its meeting on the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal so details of how the RM250 million federal loan was disbursed can be made public.
PAS vice president Datuk Mahfuz Omar was responding to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s statement this morning that Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil need not resign from Cabinet but ensure the loan given to a company owned by her family is returned.
“This is a very strange statement from the de facto law minister. How can it just be solved with giving back the money when there is breach of trust? Guilty is guilty.
“I call on the PAC to either make public or give MPs minutes of the meeting on November 23, so we can see how the loan was given out,” the Pokok Sena MP told reporters today.
The National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp), tasked with running the national cattle farming project, is chaired by Shahrizat’s husband Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail and their three children are directors in the company.
PKR has made several claims of abuse of the federal loan involving over RM62 million in land, property and expenses unrelated to cattle farming.
Shahrizat’s son, Wan Shahinur Izmir Salleh, has insisted that the company decided it would make better use of the money by investing in property during a break in business operations due to the government’s decision to suspend construction of an abattoir that would have been rented to NFCorp.
But according to the DAP publicity chief Tony Pua, the finance ministry had told the PAC last November that there was no provision that permits the NFCorp to use its federal loan to purchase property.
Pua, who sits on the PAC, said a senior ministry official had explained during the meeting on November 23, 2011 that the purpose of each drawdown must be clearly stated, and that the ministry had never received an application from NFCorp to purchase property.
Mahfuz (picture) told reporters today there were four committees in charge of monitoring the project led by a joint steering committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who was agriculture minister when the project was awarded in 2006, and the mentri besar of Negri Sembilan.
“Their duty was to monitor the progress of the project and decide on disbursement of the loan in stages. This was disclosed to the PAC so we want to see the minutes and show whether there was misappropriation from the very top in the award of the project and the loan,” he added.
The NFC hit the headlines following last year’s Auditor-General’s Report, and has continued to hog the limelight after it was linked to Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat and her family.
The Wanita Umno chief applied for three weeks’ leave from her ministerial duties last month after new allegations of bribery surfaced. She has since resumed her duties.
Last Wednesday, she was called in for questioning by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced last month Putrajaya would appoint an auditor to scrutinise NFCorp’s books in light of accusations made against the company but dismissed calls for a royal commission of inquiry into the NFC.
